Grablaeufer
Grabläufer Company Unit Type: Mechanised Infantry Company Inner Sphere reputation: Questionable Dragoon Rating: B98 ComStar Rating: 462 History Founded during the Rasalhague uprising as infantry support for the Free Rasalhague Republic Black Omen regiment, the Graverunners later worked as a freelance mercenary unit under contract of ComStar or Rasalhague nobility. The Graverunners now have questionable reputation since contact to the Hanseatische Liga had been confirmed. Ronin War Faced with the coming uprising, the unit leader Baron Ørn Blatts decided not only to offer transport for Rasalhague troops using his Seeker and tramp freighter, but also to participate in the fights. Lacking Mechs, he centered on helicopters and hovercrafts produced by the family owned Krauser fab, buffered with infantry and Arrow IV from his Seeker. The company got its name with an assault on a Kurita training barrack. His decision to drop two platoons with his Mark VII shuttles, to land nearby and to leave the Leopard in orbit as long as possible, was received with scepticism by the veteran Mech lance commander, who was stroke with wonders, when his Mechs arrived and found infantry running on the cratered and still burning battlefield, to disable the remaining already crippled Kurita Mechs. His tactic of saturation bombing a mix of high explosive, inferno and smoke rounds together with infantry in Draconis Combine fire brigade suits, parachutes, target acquisition gear and rifles, proved successful. His Seeker grounded just right to support the infantry with Arrow IV to cripple those Kurita Mechs that had been able to stand the bombardment. During the Ronin War the Grabläufer had formed the legend of fanatic Rasalhague anti-mech infantry, raising the price for the Combine to control its spinward border as high as possible, by striking at supplies and training barracks. A year later Theodore Kurita retreated his forces from Rasalhague and signed a non aggression pact with Prince Haakon Magnuson speaker of the Free Rasalhague Republic. Clan Invasion Nobility didn't suffered as hard by the Clan invasion as the common folk. Most had already moved their industrial production to a more secure ground, so had the Blatts und Krauser family clan. The Grabläufer had been on home ground on the arrival of the Clan Wolf, but without any ships which had to stay on jumping serving trade. WolfNet told : System Name : Klusteen gamma UWP : 1508 C-369546-8 Ri Ni Wa 214 FRR M3V Starport : Routine Size : Small (4300 km diameter) Athmos : Standard Hydrographic : 84% shallow oceans, 18% ice caps, 8% small islands Population : ca 200,000 Government : Representative Democracy Law enforcment : Moderate Techlevel : pre Stellar Affiliation : Rasalhague Nobility : Krauser, Blatts Forces : militia training camp of the Graverunner company Against a standard inner sphere infantry company bidding was gone as low as two points of elementals backed by a Fenris to face the tanks. A geosat announced the position of the downport, a watering in a fjord near the main town. On arrival of war ships Swen Krauser realized the new occupation and send his troops on a run to hide, while the town council offered surrender. A scenario often probed, but with Kurita in mind. As the locals lowered the stakes the cluster commander decided to accept formal surrender, and send two platoons of freeborn with light vehicles to prepare a second line garrison and forbid any trueborn to be left on fatigue duty. A week later Clan Wolf jumped out of the system, leaving a star of medium second line Mechs two platoons of infantry and some dozen light vehicles on an island nearby the downport town. Anybody wondered why the reputable Wolf Dragoon would claim a backwood agriculture planet as a pirate would, and it took some time to realize, that not only the own planet but nearly half of Rasalhague was fallen to an new enemy. Life continued as usual. The new garrison started to buy fish and vegetables from local production, ComStar temple was still working and with the news that the Clans didn't attack civilian vessels, Ørn Blatts restarted trade with his tramp. It seamed, as if the Grabläufer company had vanished. In fact they were just learning as much as possible about the new situation and the Clan protocols to abuse it for their own fortune. Swen Krauser started at his home planet with a trial of possession of the former Grabläufer company training camp. Jerimia the Star Captain took it with a laughter, when he heard that the locals wanted to fight his Hunchback with a platoon of inner sphere citizen miltia. If he had read WolfNet more closely, he had known the Grabläufer legend. Not being taken serious, is always half the battle, and certainly the strongest vantage for well equipped veteran infantry. The third Arrow IV was a head rip of - adSt March 23 3051 Jerimia. Quite a lot of locals watched the fight, Swen and his platoon offered Kudos to the Clan Wolf star commander, and obeyed to the [protocol. A week later WolfNet confirmed that the citizen of Klusteen had fought for the right to bear arms in their militia and to rule and control their planet within the clan protocol as freeborn. The next tramp delivered long awaited ammunition and maintenance parts together, with the spaceborn half of the company. Grabläufer was back and as usual behind the lines. Operation Scorpion During the next years the Blatts and Krauser family started to buy holdings and titles within Wolf territory from the prior Rasalhague nobility for cheap. ComStar contracted them to use those trials to cover secrete explorer corps missions in exchange for quite a lot of C-Bills and first class technical support for the Krauser fab at Sol/Jo. Martial Focht decided against drawing the badly equiped and demoralised Black Omen regiment for Tukayyid, and disliked to waste one of the few working units he had behind the clan lines. The graverunners felt misstrusted, when they heard about the coming battle at Tukayyid from WolfNet and not from their ROM connection. Klusteen had become one of major the turntables for Wolf suplies. Trade gave Blatts und Krauser an competive edge. And a contract signed by Ulric Kerenski, claiming Blatts und Krauser orbital fab around Jo sanctuary and under protection of Clan Wolf in case of conquer Terra, gave a trade security. There was no need for involvement by sabotage, even vice versa. One of the fabs had been ordered back to Klusteen, to restart local production for Wolf. Suddenly operation Scorpion disabled the downport HPG, cutting Klusteen from news. The city council imediately called the Graverunners to arrest the Order, but it took nearly a month for the Wolf and Graverunners technicans to bring the HPG back online. The next weeks saw several sabotage and sniper actions from ROM agents, and graverunners started to fight on Wolfs side. Even with Fochts formal disclaimer from Waterly's betrayal, relations between ComStar and the Graverunners cooled down. Since Tukayyid the Graverunners didn't accept any new explorer corps contract. But even if the inner sphere alignment is more then questionable, Graverrunners are often the last resort for nobility to regain control on their former holdings. Hanseatic League The Grabläufer came into conctact with the Hanseatic League during their rimwards explorations for ComStar. Deployment of typical League technology, most notable two Dromedar class ships, during the last decades, suggest that the current Grabläufer company and Klusteen gamma are aligned to the Hanseatic League. Their neutrality to both the inner sphere and the clans offers a large benefit to hanseatic trade. Organisation Klusteen does not have a standing army. It has a citizen militia. The means the Grabläufer Infantry Company does not exist as a fixed form, but only on demand. Each citizen of Klusteen has right to bear arms, to form his own part of the organised militia. Supprisingly to outsiders many families not only have crunch guns or gauss riffles, but also tag pointers and arrow iv on their hover trucks. The organisation stated below is influenced by both Wolf Clan and ComStar. Rats, Molerats, Biber and Hamsters are platoons of 28 people each, grouped into 3 squats of six, 5 driver or pilots and 5 gunners. Vampire serves dropship piloting, technican, security and representation. Ratten - jump infantry platoon Calling the rats jump infantry is certainly an understatement. In fact the rats are 18 elite warriors in Blatts light armor. Five heavy helicopter serve for extra mobility. More than enough to carry them, so combat drops always include decoys, smoke, high explosive bombs, infernos and additional equipment. Maulwürfe - combat engineer platoon The molerats are a combat engineer platoon of regular rank. Main armament is of course a spade. Field uniform is a fire brigade suite featuring a light exoskeleton. The molerats are also trained with Blatts Sports Gaussrifle, TAG and Arrow IV one shot launcher. As the rats, the molerats have 5 Krauser helicopter for transport. Hamster - artillery support platoon Four Skitter and a Pong serve as a backup for additional firepower. In wooden areas four Padilla and a Alacorn save the same purpose. They normaly prefer to use only one star of vessels with veteran crews. If they deploy both stars, the second star has only regular driver and gunner, while reducing jump infantry from 3 squats to one. Biber - logistic support platoon A large trailer truck with a crane and a dredger builds the heard of the support platoon. Both Mark VII shuttles also belong to Biber. A MASH unit and Hover or Padilla with Arrow IV ammunition complement support. Biber has 2 pilots, 3 drivers, 5 gunners, a squat of combat engineers, a squad of technicans and a squad of physicans. Vampire - Dropship The primary Seeker configuration is able to load 64 light vehicles with a combined weight of up to 2100 tons in deck 1 to 3. The forth deck is divided into 3 floors housing 4 platoons. In a civilian role the Seeker acts as a cargo and passenger dropship. Several military configurations exist, and its usual to reconfigure a seeker for specific missions. The example configuration, given here, was deployed on a wooded planet during a ComStar explorarion. * Deck 5: bridge, sensors, armament, 20 large crew staterooms, recreation area * Deck 4: floors, 40 small staterooms single bunkering, 20 large staterooms quatruple bunkering, 20 small staterooms double bunkering * Deck 3: 10 Heavycopter, repair shop, small bay * Deck 2: 2 Mark VII shuttles, 6 Arrow IV batteries, small bay * Deck 1: 4 Padilla, 1 Alacorn, 1 Padilla (ammo), 1 MASH, 1 Truck'n'Trailer, 5 Light Hover * Deck 0: engine, thusters, fuel, landing gear Unlike the other platoons, Vampire is organised in 3 squads of technicans a squad of inner sphere battle armor and lead by a command crew of 4 officer. The vampires are a dress unit of old elite warriors and seldom deployed in real fights. Featuring refittet inner sphere battle armor, their effective combat value is not as high as the other platoons. Kage Axe 0 :1 Move W2/J4 TAG 3- 6- 9:Special Armor 5+1 Stealth +1/+3/+6 Archilles Micro ER Pulse 1- 2- 3:2 Move W2/J3 TAG 3- 6- 9:Special Armor 6+1 Stealth +1/+4/+7 Longinus Micro ER Pulse 1- 2- 3:2 Move W2/J3 Inferno SRM(OS) 3- 6- 9:6 heat * 3 rounds Armor 9+1 Stealth +1/+3/+5 Longinus Micro ER Pulse 1- 2- 3:2 Move W2/J3 Inferno SRM(OS) 3- 6- 9:6 heat * 3 rounds Armor 9+1 Stealth +1/+3/+5 Longinus Micro ER Pulse 1- 2- 3:2 Move W2/J3 Inferno SRM(OS) 3- 6- 9:6 heat * 3 rounds Armor 9+1 Stealth +1/+3/+5